Liquid-Meth-in-the-Shampoo-Bottle Trick Doesn't Work for Women in Brownsville

You might say that law enforcement personnel assigned to the Brownsville bus station have seen it all, especially with the smuggling (or attempted transportation) of illegal substances.

"With the U.S.-Mexico border being right there, there are a lot of drugs on the main highway and in the bus terminals," says Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio.

Still, this is a real wingdinger.

Late Wednesday night, sheriff's deputies approached Mayra Argelia Garcia and Cristina Ruby Casas as they tried to board a northbound bus at the Brownsville bus terminal. The women obliged when investigators asked if they could have a look inside the boxes they were carrying.

Officials found multiple shampoo bottles that weren't filled with a girl's favorite toiletry, but rather gobs of liquid methamphetamine.

"[The bottles] were closed tightly and wrapped with tape because they didn't want them to leak," Lucio tells Hair Balls by phone. Officers quickly sniffed it out because "you don't carry three to four bottles of shampoo with you on a trip," says Lucio.

Sheriff Lucio estimates that the pair possessed nine pounds of the stuff and that the liquid form is worth between $27,000 and $30,000 per pound, which means that Garcia and Casas were carrying drugs worth up to approximately $270,000.

Neither Garcia, 17, nor Casas, 21, has a criminal history. The two were charged with possession of a controlled substance, a first-degree felony. They're currently behind bars at the Cameron County Jail. If convicted, they each can be facing five to 99 years in the slammer.

As of the time this post was published, it was unknown whether the women were acting as drug smugglers. "We may add charges" if that turns out to be the case, says Lucio.